Date: Wed, 25 Jun 1997 09:44:44 +1000 From: sjwright-AT-vaxc.cc.monash.edu.au (Steve Wright) Subject: Negri returning to Italy The gist of the articles posted by Harry is that Negri has agreed to return to Italy at the beginning of July, to serve out the remainder of his sentence (of which more than 3 years remain). It's possible, however, that the sentence might be commuted or modified in some way (e.g. day release). Negri declared himself to be "defeated, but not a criminal". It also seems that if he had stayed on in France another year he would have been eligible for French citizenship. His intention, it is said, is to help resolve the question of those exiles who left Italy as a consequence of the state crackdown of the late 70s and early 80s, and to clear up their situation within a changing Italian and EU legal framework. Franco Piperno will fly to Paris to accompany him back, and there seems to be a plan to try and persuade Oreste Scalzone to go back too. According to Piperno, "in returning to Italy and going to jail, Toni Negri admits and recognises a defeat which is not his alone, but is that of an entire generation which attempted a profound social transformation of Italy only to fail, above all in a political sense . . . Toni Negri closes the phase of exile but clearly creates an opening [una fase di uscita] for those who are still in prison, and for the recovery of intellectual energies for Italy's transformation". I saw a brief interview with Negri on the Italian news this morning (TG 1 gets relayed here), where the main point he made was that the state itself was not innocent. It will be enlightening to say what sort of debate emerges within the Italian movement about this, and whether discussion can move beyond divisions first defined in the early 80s regarding "disassociation". Has anyone seen reports in the English-language press? Steve --- from list aut-op-sy-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---
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